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I’m glad Eileen Burbidge works in such an inclusive environment, but at the last two employers I worked for I witnessed a management-level employee make an explicit blanket statement that he/she did not wish to hire or work with a particular gender.

[giant rage-inducing tl; dr elided].

So if I see someone else closing the door unfairly, then I feel the need open a door of my own. If that’s patronizing, I’m sorry. I’m really sorry, and I’ll add it to a long list of things that I’m sorry for. But I don’t see how I can live with myself if I just close my eyes and pretend there’s no problem.

Yeah. I agree with her point that women should make sure to focus on success instead of just focusing on the hurdles we face, and that men should make sure they’re not being patronizing. But we don’t yet live in a world where a women who works hard wouldn’t naturally reach a higher (paying) position if the only thing that changed was that the people who made those decisions thought she was a man (even ignoring all the environmental and education issues), and that does mean that men can help by recognizing and responding to the fact that women do not have the same opportunities as men.

Yeah, I agree that her diatribe is just dripping with privilege in some ways. She’s controlling a lot of money as an angel investor. If people feel you have power, they treat you better. From the photo, she looks Asian, and in my experience *I* get treated better in tech communities if I’m perceived as Asian. (Since I’m of mixed race, I get a whole gamut of reactions depending on what people think I am. It’s been very educational, sometimes in a not fun way.)

But I posted it anyhow because she’s right about one thing: sometimes a little “just try!” can got a long way. You know which posts of mine result in the most personal email? Posts like Self Confidence Tricks where I remind women that they’re awesome. I get a little pile of messages from women who tell me that that post inspired them to try $cool_thing, and it’s totally inspiring to me in turn.

I guess sometimes, it’s nice to pretend we live in a world which is a little more perfect, and a reminder is all we need to do cool things?

“BCS, the Chartered Institute for IT, analysed the results of a survey of 35,000 people around the world.

Access to communication tools was found to be the most valued.

It found that women in developing countries, and people of both sexes with low incomes or poor education, were most influenced emotionally by their access to technology.

It is partly because women tend to have a more central role in family and other social networks, said researcher Paul Flatters of Trajectory Partnership, which conducted the research on behalf of the BCS.

“Our hypothesis is that women in developing countries benefit more because they are more socially constrained in society,” he added.